Five transmedia projects – autumn 2012

All of a sudden, it’s autumn again and we’re coming to the home stretch of the year. Fear not, even though the days grow shorter and the weather colder (unless you’re reading this down under, in which case I envy you a little bit) it looks like we’ll have plenty to take part of and be excited about in the realm of transmedia. Here are five projects that in one way or another have caught my eye during the past weeks.

This is a very big project, bringing together eight European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlands) to one production. It’s also very transmedia, with online and real-life treasure hunts, a narrative superstructure knitting together the whole and (as of the 5th of September) some 80.000 active players engaging in the series.

There has been critique, mostly about the quality of the script and the quality of the tv series, but there has been at least as many reviews applauding the project; visit the site, take part and make up your own mind!

Also – it will be very interesting to take part of the case studies afterwards… J

Now, WHENABOUTS is currently ”just” a Kickstarter project. But what a project! Knitting together the physical and the online worlds in a logical and engaging fashion, letting parents and kids play together and experience together… ambition-wise, this is pretty awesome. At this time, they have only raised a fraction of their projected goal sum on Kickstarter, but even if the funding campaign fails, I sincerely hope they do not give up on the idea but rather revamp it, or get new partners in who can stump up the required money. I’d very much like to experience this.

Talking about big, 4th Wall Studios continue to refine their RIDES-engine and fill it with more and more good content. As of now, they’ve started up what looks to be a very fruitful collaboration with Rick Heinrichs as a Creative Director, which looks to promise new and interesting output. I believe the show The Gamblers is the next thing to look for on the RIDES-engine, and anyone interest in transmedia storytelling should keep tabs on these guys.

It’s the most read diary in the world, both horrifying and spirit-lifting at the same time. Now it’s getting a work-around with the help of Penguin Books, Viking and TradeMobile, and I must say it sounds pretty awesome. It’s what publishing and transmedia should be about, giving context, letting the reader move into the world of the story, experience how it was back then or how it is there right now; if only they could go full Alternate Reality, it’d be even more neat.

I happily backed this on Kickstarter earlier this year, and the beta version seems to be running very well indeed. Again, this goes into the education / edutainment field, but that is no bad thing. A good game play, an immersive story with a mission… all in all, this is a project I’ll take into my reference library for when I venture into edutainment next time.

There are of course a multitude of other projects out there, many of which I probably know nothing about (but I’d love to know more!). Sound off in the comments or let me know over Twitter!